About the Africa Human Development Report 2012
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence of hunger in the world blocking long-term advances in human development for millions of Africans.
UNDP's Africa Human Development Report 2012 shows that food security and human development reinforce each other. To accelerate food security, countries in sub-Saharan Africa must boost agricultural productivity and enhance nutrition to improve availability, access and use of food.
Building resilience for households and communities, and empowering women and the rural poor are critical enablers of food security. (Photo: Derrick Butler)
Chapter 1: From Hunger to Human Development
If countries in sub-Saharan Africa are to realize their potential, they will need to overcome the undernourishment that afflicts more than a quarter of their people.
Neither food security nor sustained human development can be met through economic growth alone. The character of growth matters and public action is needed urgently to make the development process more pro-poor.
Food security extends beyond sectoral mandates and needs to move to the center of the development debate. (Photo: UNDP)
Chapter 2: How Food Insecurity Persists amid Abundant Resources
Africa has abundant land and water resources, yet its people lack adequate food and nutrition. This contradiction stems from glaringly uneven local production and access, and chronically deficient nutrition, especially among the poorest.
Undermining food and nutrition security are unstable food systems in a region vulnerable to the effects of erratic weather, volatile food prices, and conflict and violence.
But food security goes beyond availability and access. Proper use of food and good nutrition is key to sustaining human development. (Photo: UNICEF/Olivier Asselin)
Chapter 3: Persistent challenges and Emerging Threats to Food Security
Misguided policies, weak institutions and failing markets are the deeper causes of Africa's food insecurity.
This is clearest at the household and community levels, where unequal power relations can trap vulnerable groups in vicious cycles of deprivation, food insecurity and low human development.
Emerging threats to food security and human development in sub-Saharan Africa include demographic pressures, environmental stresses and the effects of global warming. (Photo: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam)
Chapter 4: Sustainable Agricultural Productivity for Food, Income and Employment
Low agricultural productivity has severely hampered food security and human development in Africa.
Agriculture not only determines the availability of food. For the majority of Africans, it is also the main source of employment and income. In turn, earnings from on and off the farm enable access to nutritious food.
Increased and more sustainable use of inputs and technology, improvements in infrastructure and better functioning markets can enhance the role especially of small-holder famers in enhancing food security and human development. (Photo: Neil Palmer/CIAT)
Chapter 5 : Nutrition Policies for a Food Secure Future
While hunger and starvation in sub-Saharan Africa often captures the headlines , malnutrition, its silent accomplice, is rarely considered news-worthy.
Without effective interventions, malnutrition will continue to inflict irreversible damage on individuals early in life and large losses in human development for generations of Africans to come.
Countries must develop coordinated interventions to boost nutrition while expanding access to health services, education, sanitation, and clean water. (Photo: Neil Palmer/CIAT)
Chapter 6: Resilience and Social Protection for Stability in Food Systems
Getting food from field to table is fraught with risk in sub-Saharan Africa; shocks, cycles and trends upend food security and livelihoods.
Conflict, droughts and floods, and food price spikes can inflict immediate hardship on the poorest and most vulnerable households and constrain human development. Too often the damage is permanent.
Cyclical or longer term stresses such as seasonal harvesting patterns that result in long "hungry seasons", and creeping environmental degradation can devastate communities. (Photo: UNDP)
Chapter 7: Empowerment for Social Justice, Gender Equality and Food for Everyone
Cycles of hunger and despair with which so many African struggle show no signs of letting go. The responsibility for this state of affairs is shared among governments, institutions and markets in Africa and abroad.
Change will be most effective if accompanied by a shift of resources, capacities and decisions to the rural poor—especially women.
When marginalized and food insecure people are empoweredthey take charge of their own destinies. (Photo: Neil Palmer/CIAT)
- AfHDR in the Press: Latest launches take place in South Korea, the Gambia, Malawi.
- Read the Full Report and Individual Chapters
- Summary: English | French | German | Japanese
- Press Release: Addressing hunger precondition for sustained human development in sub-Saharan Africa, UNDP Report says.
